We hear all the time that by just posting content on social platforms that the audience will grow naturally. While larger brands can afford organic growth, it is a big misconception for startups. The truth is, content alone will not grow your social profiles. You need to have advertising running in order for them to grow.
Facebook and subsequently, Instagram has dramatically limited the organic reach of social business profiles, thus pressuring businesses to enable ads as the only reliable way to increase their reach—a key metric for social growth. Equally important is producing consistent and engaging content to maximize the conversion of audiences introduced through ads.
Luckily, we have grown enough brands’ social profiles that we know several tricks to stretch that dollar and still get the audience growth you desire.
- Have your target market in mind. Narrow down the audience that your ads get served to, this cuts costs and ensures quality leads that have a higher potential to convert. Additionally, primed audiences are more likely to become advocates, showing their support by following your brand through your various channels.
- Ensure you align your brand identity early, with a consistent voice and authoritative presence that helps build consumer confidence. Comments moderation is an essential part of creating a lasting impression and allows you to clear up any detractors, this also allows you to understand the perspective of your audience. When it comes to community management, responding in the form of a question is a proven way to build engagement on your ads. Don’t forget to check out our ‘how to respond to pricing questions‘.
- Look into your metrics. ‘Reach’ is vital for growing your audience, as this ensures more people are introduced to your brand. ‘Engagement’ is critical as this has proven to be the defining metric the algorithms use to prioritize the delivery of content. If you’re starting out with Facebook Ads, the dashboard may be overwhelming but you can start by looking into these 5 key metrics to measure effectiveness: Reach, Conversion Rate, Cost per Click (CPC), Click through Rate (CTR), and Cost per action.
- Be found with hashtags. Using hashtags is a simple and effective way for your profile to be associated with certain keywords. This allows audiences who are looking for your type of product/service to easily discover you. It is recommended that you diversify your hashtags in order not be penalized by the algorithm. If you’re looking for suggestions on which hashtag to utilize, check out hashtagify.me and Best Hashtags.
- Hold contests and giveaways. This excites your current community and will result in new leads because of the shares and tags on your post. Make sure you strategically formulate the contest/giveaway rules to focus on ways on getting more engagement such as requiring the tagging of profiles, sharing or liking of a certain post, following your account, and etc.
- Get started even with a minimal budget. A common misconception about online advertising is that you need to set aside a hefty budget for this to be effective. Facebook Ads just require $5 a day to gain clicks, likes, and post engagement. The key to leveraging your budget is in the audience targeting, this may need to be tested at the beginning in order to identify which market is the most responsive.
Once your brand presence is established after your consistent online advertising campaigns, this will directly affect the growth of your organic audience. Your efforts will create a ripple effect in terms of referrals, reviews, recommendations, and etc.
Social Advertising can make a relevant impact on your business. If you want to focus on doing what you do best, partner with a digital marketing agency with proven success. Rainfactory is a full-service digital agency that operates as a marketing department for growing brands. Get in touch with us and we’ll work through actionable steps for your online eCommerce sales growth.